Brazilian populations ofDrosophila maculifrons(Diptera: Drosophilidae): low diversity levels and signals of a population expansion after the Last Glacial Maximum

Abstract

The Quaternary period was marked by considerable changes in climate. Such palaeoclimatic changes affected the population dynamics of many species, both in the Northern and in the Southern Hemisphere. However, the extent of these impacts on the demographic patterns of Neotropical species presenting different ecological requirements remains unclear. Drosophila maculifrons DUDA 1947 belongs to the guaramunu group of Drosophila and represents a potential indicator of the genetic consequences caused by the climatic fluctuations of the Quaternary, because it seems to be sensitive to temperature and humidity shifts. The aim of this study was to evaluate the evolutionary processes subjacent to the patterns of intraspecific diversity and structure of different populations of D. maculifrons. In total, 152 individuals were collected in the south and south‐east Brazil. Phylogenetic and phylogeographical analyses were performed based on sequences of COI and COII mitochondrial genes. In general, the results pointed to Brazilian populations of D. maculifrons being extremely impoverished in terms of mitochondrial diversity and population structure, which could be explained by a recent population expansion event dated to approximately 12 000 years ago. In fact, with the assistance of species palaeo‐distribution modelling strategies, it was possible to infer that most of the sampled region did not present the D. maculifrons environmental suitability requirements at least during the period of the Last Glacial Maximum. © 2014 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2014, 112, 55–66.

Unveiling the Mycodrosophila projectans (Diptera, Drosophilidae) species complex: Insights into the evolution of three Neotropical cryptic and syntopic species

“…The levels of nucleotide and haplotype or allele diversity seen here for the M . projectans complex were also considerably higher than those previously found for several other Drosophilidae species [ 99 , 100 , 102 – 106 ]. In fact, nucleotide diversity for M .…”

“…projectans affinis 3 reached more than 10,000 times the value found for D . maculifrons , a species that also showed signals of population expansion dated to the LGM [ 100 ]. This high diversity could be an intrinsic characteristic of the M .…”

Phylogeography of the widespread spider Nephila clavipes (Araneae: Araneidae) in South America indicates geologically and climatically driven lineage diversification

“…Some organisms do present this expected pattern (e.g. De Ré et al., ), but recent works have challenged this concept by showing several organisms that display population stability (e.g. Batalha‐Filho, Cabanne, & Miyaki, ) or pre‐LGM expansion (e.g.…”

Migration rate and genetic diversity of two Drosophila maculifrons (Duda, 1927) populations from Highland Araucaria Forest Fragments in Southern Brazil

“…Low genetic differentiation for D. maculifrons was also recently detected for COI and COII mitochondrial genes (Cenzi de Ré et al, 2014). On the other hand, for microsatellites, low genetic differentiation was not observed (D = 0.4174; Fst = 0.0901), probably because of its high variability.…”